Spring 2015 - Day 13
Happy January 20th! How's the 19th treating all of you?
Today was a study day and I actually did some studious things. And by studious I mean working on my landscape. All. Day. Long.
I started as soon as I got up. I took all of my supplies up to the deck 5 dining room, found a place to settle in, and just started painting. The part that took me the longest was painting the brick walls that line the pond. It look me all the way to lunch time.
At lunch they had beef stew and it was phenomenal. I was so satisfied.
Today is the day that they claimed it was going to become more rocky. As I have said before, we diverted around this huge storm. They posted a radar map of the storm, our original path, and the path we ended up taking. This morning we were still on the outskirts of the storm but by noon we were going to start cutting into the storm. We went really far south so we now need to start heading north up to Japan.
This also meant that today was the last nice day so everyone was outside in the sun while I was all alone painting on deck 5. But it was actually really peaceful and I enjoyed myself.
One thing they have changed for our voyage is the field labs for the global lens classes. There aren't any. Instead we have discussion sections on study days. Its annoying. It takes away from our study day, which few people use to study and most use to relax. I have had class for 10 days straight by this point and was looking forward to a free day. Granted, it wasn't the discussion session that really make it not relaxing, it was the painting. But still, the point stands.
In my discussion section we discussed monomyths. It was the TA that lead the session and Marty started off by saying, "lets begin with the definition of what myth is."
This question is never going away. I should just memorize the answer and write my paper on that since it seems to be what everyone is stuck on. It was pretty funny though, and Jessi enjoyed the story when I told her later.
When I went to my discussion section I just left all of my painting stuff down on the table by itself and was a little worried about it but they were still there waiting for me when I returned. I spent the afternoon working on the water. I was going to collage the water but I didn't like the way it was coming out at all so I ripped it off. Doing that ended up leaving a little bit of the paper behind and that left an interesting texture. When I painted over it the texture came through so it looks pretty cool. The paper also held more paint to it is darker in those areas. I really like the way it is coming out. I just have to finish the sky, one bush, and a tree and I will be finished.
Tonight was our birthday dinner for mama Shelley. Jessi and I got there early and grabbed a table way in the back corner so that we wouldn't disturb the rest of the dining room. Our family is large and so as people kept coming we tried our best to all squeeze around this little 6 person table. John eventually saw us and gave us permission to move to the captains table. That table is generally reserved for VIP meals and students are not allowed to sit at it normally. We were grateful for being allowed to move there because fitting all 13 of us around that tiny table would not have worked very well.
There were a lot of people with birthdays on the ship because a lot of cakes came out to different tables and Happy Birthday was sung multiple times. Jessi, at the advisement of Vijay, had gotten the large round cake. It was huge!! We had a lot left over so we sliced it up and walked around the dining room asking if anyone wanted a piece. People are always willing to take free ice cream cake so it went fast.
Mama Shelley was so grateful for the cake and we had a lot of fun planning the evening for her. I am really glad I ended up with a shipboard family, it makes the MV feel more like home during these stretches where the community is still forming. The next time we are getting together we are doing pizza and smoothies on deck 7 the second day after we get back from Japan, which also happens to be the day right before China. Two of our family members have birthdays at the beginning of February so we will be celebrating those and sharing our experiences in Japan!
At the beginning of dinner the swells started getting larger. It's really strange because the sea looks really smooth and calm because the waves are choppy, they are huge flowing swells. It also means that we rock very smoothly and continuously but very dramatically. Nothing was sliding on the tables though, so it wasn't that bad yet.
I always think about how they secure stuff down in the kitchen. I wonder if they have special cabinets that they put all the dishes in so that they don't slide around too much and break. Or do they stack them like you normally would and the cabinet doors just lock. Those kinds of logistical things would be interesting to learn about.
After dinner we killed it at the gym. We needed to work off all that ice cream cake. It was the first time that running on the treadmill felt very unsafe. I had to gold on almost the whole time, which I don't like doing. Usually the rocking is small enough that it is easy to compensate for when you are running. You just lean to one side a little and then lean to the other. But since the swells were so much bigger I had to re-learn how much I needed to lean. Sometime I couldn't even lean far enough and had to grab on. It was definitely to the greatest idea, but we did it. When I get back home and start running on land again I am going to be all wobbly because I am going to be used to running on constantly moving ground.
Should be interesting.
Tomorrow is a normal day. Class at 8am! My landscape painting is due so I need to take some time to finish it. And mama Shelley having a flower arranging demonstration so we are going to go and support her. Only 4 days until Japan!
Today was a study day and I actually did some studious things. And by studious I mean working on my landscape. All. Day. Long.
I started as soon as I got up. I took all of my supplies up to the deck 5 dining room, found a place to settle in, and just started painting. The part that took me the longest was painting the brick walls that line the pond. It look me all the way to lunch time.
At lunch they had beef stew and it was phenomenal. I was so satisfied.
Today is the day that they claimed it was going to become more rocky. As I have said before, we diverted around this huge storm. They posted a radar map of the storm, our original path, and the path we ended up taking. This morning we were still on the outskirts of the storm but by noon we were going to start cutting into the storm. We went really far south so we now need to start heading north up to Japan.
This also meant that today was the last nice day so everyone was outside in the sun while I was all alone painting on deck 5. But it was actually really peaceful and I enjoyed myself.
One thing they have changed for our voyage is the field labs for the global lens classes. There aren't any. Instead we have discussion sections on study days. Its annoying. It takes away from our study day, which few people use to study and most use to relax. I have had class for 10 days straight by this point and was looking forward to a free day. Granted, it wasn't the discussion session that really make it not relaxing, it was the painting. But still, the point stands.
In my discussion section we discussed monomyths. It was the TA that lead the session and Marty started off by saying, "lets begin with the definition of what myth is."
This question is never going away. I should just memorize the answer and write my paper on that since it seems to be what everyone is stuck on. It was pretty funny though, and Jessi enjoyed the story when I told her later.
When I went to my discussion section I just left all of my painting stuff down on the table by itself and was a little worried about it but they were still there waiting for me when I returned. I spent the afternoon working on the water. I was going to collage the water but I didn't like the way it was coming out at all so I ripped it off. Doing that ended up leaving a little bit of the paper behind and that left an interesting texture. When I painted over it the texture came through so it looks pretty cool. The paper also held more paint to it is darker in those areas. I really like the way it is coming out. I just have to finish the sky, one bush, and a tree and I will be finished.
Tonight was our birthday dinner for mama Shelley. Jessi and I got there early and grabbed a table way in the back corner so that we wouldn't disturb the rest of the dining room. Our family is large and so as people kept coming we tried our best to all squeeze around this little 6 person table. John eventually saw us and gave us permission to move to the captains table. That table is generally reserved for VIP meals and students are not allowed to sit at it normally. We were grateful for being allowed to move there because fitting all 13 of us around that tiny table would not have worked very well.
There were a lot of people with birthdays on the ship because a lot of cakes came out to different tables and Happy Birthday was sung multiple times. Jessi, at the advisement of Vijay, had gotten the large round cake. It was huge!! We had a lot left over so we sliced it up and walked around the dining room asking if anyone wanted a piece. People are always willing to take free ice cream cake so it went fast.
Mama Shelley was so grateful for the cake and we had a lot of fun planning the evening for her. I am really glad I ended up with a shipboard family, it makes the MV feel more like home during these stretches where the community is still forming. The next time we are getting together we are doing pizza and smoothies on deck 7 the second day after we get back from Japan, which also happens to be the day right before China. Two of our family members have birthdays at the beginning of February so we will be celebrating those and sharing our experiences in Japan!
At the beginning of dinner the swells started getting larger. It's really strange because the sea looks really smooth and calm because the waves are choppy, they are huge flowing swells. It also means that we rock very smoothly and continuously but very dramatically. Nothing was sliding on the tables though, so it wasn't that bad yet.
I always think about how they secure stuff down in the kitchen. I wonder if they have special cabinets that they put all the dishes in so that they don't slide around too much and break. Or do they stack them like you normally would and the cabinet doors just lock. Those kinds of logistical things would be interesting to learn about.
After dinner we killed it at the gym. We needed to work off all that ice cream cake. It was the first time that running on the treadmill felt very unsafe. I had to gold on almost the whole time, which I don't like doing. Usually the rocking is small enough that it is easy to compensate for when you are running. You just lean to one side a little and then lean to the other. But since the swells were so much bigger I had to re-learn how much I needed to lean. Sometime I couldn't even lean far enough and had to grab on. It was definitely to the greatest idea, but we did it. When I get back home and start running on land again I am going to be all wobbly because I am going to be used to running on constantly moving ground.
Should be interesting.
Tomorrow is a normal day. Class at 8am! My landscape painting is due so I need to take some time to finish it. And mama Shelley having a flower arranging demonstration so we are going to go and support her. Only 4 days until Japan!
